Aisle Be Pressing Charges

I’m a thirty-eight-year-old woman, and I have worked different retail and customer service jobs most of my life. I’ve dealt with my share of entitled customers at work. I’ve even been mistaken for an employee at a bunch of stores, but this was my first confrontational experience as a customer.

My daughter and I were at Walmart, getting dog food and a couple of last-minute ingredients for dinner. I was loading a large bag of dog food while trying to keep a toddler entertained when it happened.

I felt a sharp jab in the shoulder. I turned around to see a woman with an expression that could curdle milk.

Me: “Yes?”

Customer: “Load four bags of dog food in my cart.”

She pointed at the 40 lbs bag I just loaded into my cart.

No “please,” no polite “would/could you,” just a terse order like she was talking to someone so beneath her that she couldn’t be bothered saying anything else.

I wasn’t even slightly resembling a worker since I was wearing jeans, sneakers, and a black hoodie from a local haunted house. Not to mention my daughter in the cart next to me. Still, I wasn’t in a rush, and my daughter wasn’t being fussy. If she had asked nicely, I would have gladly helped. I’ve done that a bunch of times before and have always been glad to help, so long as I got a “please and thank you.”

Instead, I just said:

Me: “I don’t work here; I’m shopping.”

I was hoping that being direct and staying close to my daughter would show that I was busy.

But no. Her lip curled even harder, and she sounded insulted.

Customer: “So you’re not going to help me?”

Me: “No, I need to finish my shopping.”

I grabbed my cart with my daughter and started walking away. I just wanted to get us away from that situation ASAP.

That was my mistake. Never turn your back on a rabid animal.

I barely registered her indignant huff before she grabbed me by the hood of my sweater and yanked. This freaked me out about suddenly being choked. I swung my arm back as hard as I could to force her to let go. I made contact with something hard enough that she let go with a yelp, and I high-tailed it to the front of the store to report what happened.

The employees, manager, and security were on their game and immediately went looking for the customer as soon as I told them what happened and gave a description. Unfortunately, she was gone by the time they went looking for her. The manager still contacted the police, and a report was filed. I definitely wanted to press charges if I could.

According to security, after I hit the woman and ran off, she looked really upset and insulted, but then got an “oh s***!” look. She started looking around until she looked directly at a camera. She then grabbed her purse and sprinted out of the store, leaving her cart and groceries behind. Guess she wasn’t a complete idiot after all and realized how badly she messed up.

The manager promised to keep an eye out for her, and the police said they would contact me if needed. My hand got bruised from how hard I hit her, and she left a line on my neck from trying to choke me. My daughter had no idea that anything bad had happened. She was giggling when I was running her and the cart to the front.

The next day, I got a call from the officer I talked to. Either the woman grew a conscience or someone forced her to turn herself in. She showed up at the police station the next day, looking like a scolded puppy when she got there (officer’s description).

The officer asked if I still wanted to press charges and said she’d likely get probation or community service. I told him that I did still want to. 

Part of me wonders… did she actually feel bad? Did her husband/wife or whoever ask her why she didn’t have the dog food and force her to confess? Or did she come in so she wouldn’t be arrested and get a lighter sentence? I don’t know. I’m just surprised that she did.